We had a bit of a blow.

No damage here at the Ponderosa,  and I'll be a little smug here and attribute that to what I'd like to think of as due diligence.

I mean, we've spent quite a few bucks over the years making sure that trees that were too close to the house or looking poorly were summarily dispatched.   We had one that was right on the property line between the two houses at the back.  I think that was the very first one to go,  way back in 1992 not long after we moved here.


It so happened that I had to take a little road trip this morning,  and couldn't help but notice that one of our neighbours was indeed pretty damned lucky that this tree didn't fall the other way.

This was a perfectly healthy tree,  but I have a theory.

See,  I'm really reluctant to water our lawn.  I figure, it's grass,  and if it gets a little brown along sometime in August say,  it'll come back in due time.   So my theory is,  if you water your grass to the point that it'll stay green,  the grass isn't the only thing getting the water,  as any tree in the vicinity is going to siphon off as much water as it can get.   The unfortunate result is,  the roots of the tree don't need to go down any deeper than where it's going to find water.  Then the wind comes up, and your tree takes a tumble.  

Hopefully not on your house.

Trees are wonderful,  but if you have them in a suburban setting,  you'd best be keeping an eye on them,  and make sure they're well rooted.

But hey,  that's just a theory.

Just today T.C. and I were eyeing the two remaining ash trees in the side yard.   We had one taken down last summer,  and I know in my heart of hearts that the remaining two have "the bug" and will need to get removed at some point in the next several months.
Sad but true.

That'll just leave the one oak tree,  which is seems to be fine.


Oh,  and the other little thing that came to our attention as a result of the wind yesterday?   Well,  a transport driver was driving his unloaded tractor trailer across the Burlington Skyway (a bridge around these parts for anyone not familiar)  and in spite of the signs saying,  "High winds on Skyway",  he figured he'd be fine,  right up until the moment when the wind knocked over his trailer.  
He came out of it unscathed,  read about it here if you'd care to.

I'm not about to offer any opinions as to the "state of mind" of this individual.  You can come to your own conclusions.

When another transport driver was briefly interviewed,  he was of the opinion that getting blown over was pretty much what you could expect if travelling light over the bridge when there are high winds.

Anyhoodle.


That's today's missive.   Trying to be more consistent in that department.

Thanks for stopping by.